"We lay it down as a fundamental, that laws, to be just, must give a reciprocation of right; that, without this, they are mere arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force, and not in conscience." --Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the state of Virginia, 1782

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."Patrick Henry

"[W]here there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community." --Benjamin Rush, letter to David Ramsay, 1788

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” — James Madison, 4 Annals of Congress 179, 1794

"A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect and promises the cure for which we are seeking." --James Madison, letter to William Hunter, 1790

"The regular distribution of power into distinct departments; the introduction of legislative balances and checks; the institution of courts composed of judges holding their offices during good behavior; the representation of the people in the legislature by deputies of their own election... They are means, and powerful means, by which the excellences of republican government may be retained and its imperfections lessened or avoided." --Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 9, 1787

"The republican principle demands that the deliberate sense of the community should govern the conduct of those to whom they intrust the management of their affairs; but it does not require an unqualified complaisance to every sudden breeze of passion or to every transient impulse which the people may receive from the arts of men, who flatter their prejudices to betray their interests." --Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 71, 1788

"You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, 'The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.' The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing." --Ronald Reagan

"Every thing useful and beneficial to man, seems to be connected with obedience to the laws of his nature, the inclinations, the duties, and the happiness of individuals, resolve themselves into customs and habits, favourable, in the highest degree, to society. In no case is this more apparent, than in the customs of nations respecting marriage." --Samuel Williams, The Natural and Civil History of Vermont, 1794

"The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the republican model of government, are justly considered deeply, perhaps as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people." --George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789

"It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions." --Samuel Adams

"You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, 'The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.' The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing." --Ronald Reagan

"The regular distribution of power into distinct departments; the introduction of legislative balances and checks; the institution of courts composed of judges holding their offices during good behavior; the representation of the people in the legislature by deputies of their own election... They are means, and powerful means, by which the excellences of republican government may be retained and its imperfections lessened or avoided." --Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 9, 1787

"More permanent and genuine happiness is to be found in the sequestered walks of connubial life than in the giddy rounds of promiscuous pleasure." --George Washington, letter to the Marquis de la Rourie, 1786

"I have always considered marriage as the most interesting event of one's life, the foundation of happiness or misery." --George Washington, letter to Burwell Bassett, 1785

"The happy State of Matrimony is, undoubtedly, the surest and most lasting Foundation of Comfort and Love; the Source of all that endearing Tenderness and Affection which arises from Relation and Affinity; the grand Point of Property; the Cause of all good Order in the World, and what alone preserves it from the utmost Confusion; and, to sum up all, the Appointment of infinite Wisdom for these great and good Purposes." --Benjamin Franklin, Rules and Maxims for Promoting Matrimonial Happiness, 1730

"[L]et them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." --Thomas Jefferson

"After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd." --French historian Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)

"[A]lthough a republican government is slow to move, yet when once in motion, its momentum becomes irresistible." --Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Francis C. Gray, 1815

An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation. John Marshall, McCullough v. Maryland, 1819

And it is no less true, that personal security and private property rest entirely upon the wisdom, the stability, and the integrity of the courts of justice. Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

Another not unimportant consideration is, that the powers of the general government will be, and indeed must be, principally employed upon external objects, such as war, peace, negotiations with foreign powers, and foreign commerce. In its internal operations it can touch but few objects, except to introduce regulations beneficial to the commerce, intercourse, and other relations, between the states, and to lay taxes for the common good. The powers of the states, on the other hand, extend to all objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, and liberties, and property of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the state. Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

Besides, to lay and collect internal taxes in this extensive country must require a great number of congressional ordinances, immediately operation upon the body of the people; these must continually interfere with the state laws and thereby produce disorder and general dissatisfaction till the one system of laws or the other, operating upon the same subjects, shall be abolished. Federal Farmer, Antifederalist Letter, October 10, 1787

"No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was every more clouded than the present! Wisdom, and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm." --George Washington, letter to James Madison, 1786

"The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. ... How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?" --John Adams, Diary, 1778

Not a founding father but in their spirit. Mr.William J. H. Boetcker, a Presbyterian minister, wrote a pamphlet entitled "Lincoln on Limitations" which lead to these being attributed to Lincoln.

The 10 Cannots

1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong3. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.4. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.5. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.6. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.7. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.8. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.9. You cannot establish security on borrowed money.10 You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

"It is the duty of parents to maintain their children decently, and according to their circumstances; to protect them according to the dictates of prudence; and to educate them according to the suggestions of a judicious and zealous regard for their usefulness, their respectability and happiness." --James Wilson, Lectures on Law, 1791

If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.

Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance.” President James Madison (1809 to 1817)

Thomas Jefferson said to John Taylor in 1816 that: “I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies…”.

“While the people have property, arms in their hands, and only a spark of noble spirit, the most corrupt Congress must be mad to form any project of tyranny.” (Rev. Nicholas Collin, Fayetteville [NC] Gazette, October 12, 1789)

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? . . . Congress has no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American . . . [T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.” (Tench Coxe, ally of James Madison and member of the Continental Congress, Freeman’s Journal, February 20, 1778)

Coxe also said, “As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow-citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article [the Second Amendment] in their right to keep and bear their private arms.” (Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789)

“f circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens.” (Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers, Number 29)

"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."Samuel Adams

This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.Benjamin Franklin

As parents, we can have no joy, knowing that this government is not sufficiently lasting to ensure any thing which we may bequeath to posterity: And by a plain method of argument, as we are running the next generation into debt, we ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully. In order to discover the line of our duty rightly, we should take our children in our hand, and fix our station a few years farther into life; that eminence will present a prospect, which a few present fears and prejudices conceal from our sight.

"[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government." --James Madison

"The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy." --Benjamin Franklin, Emblematical Representations, 1774

"With respect to the two words 'general welfare,' I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." --James Madison

"Our struggle for nationhood, our unrelenting fight for freedom, our very existence -- these have all rested on the assurance that you must be free to shape your life as you are best able to, that no one can stop you from reaching higher or take from you the creativity that has made America the envy of mankind." --Ronald Reagan

"We lay it down as a fundamental, that laws, to be just, must give a reciprocation of right; that, without this, they are mere arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force, and not in conscience." --Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the state of Virginia, 1782

"[W]here there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community." --Benjamin Rush, letter to David Ramsay, circa April 1788

"An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation." --John Marshall

-------------------------------------------------------May have copied these from Crafty but what a powerful group of quotes

"Human Felicity is produced not so much by great Pieces of good Fortune that seldom happen, as by little Advantages that occur every Day." --Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 1771

"Strive to be the greatest man in your country, and you may be disappointed. Strive to be the best and you may succeed: he may well win the race that runs by himself." --Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1747

"Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have grown not only gray, but almost blind in the service of my country." --George Washington, upon fumbling for his glasses before delivering the Newburgh Address, 1783

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it." --Thomas Paine, The Crisis, No. 4, 1777

"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing. And that you may be always doing good, my dear, is the ardent prayer of yours affectionately." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Martha Jefferson, 1787

"And as to the Cares, they are chiefly what attend the bringing up of Children; and I would ask any Man who has experienced it, if they are not the most delightful Cares in the World; and if from that Particular alone, he does not find the Bliss of a double State much greater, instead of being less than he expected." --Benjamin Franklin, Reply to a Piece of Advice

"[T]he importance of piety and religion; of industry and frugality; of prudence, economy, regularity and an even government; all ... are essential to the well-being of a family." --Samuel Adams, letter to Thomas Wells, 1780

"Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience." --George Washington, The Rules of Civility, 1748

"It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, 1785

"This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest of ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties." --John Jay, Federalist No. 2

A Revolutionary War Widow's Estate Becomes a Preservation Battleground

Robert Stolarik for The New York TimesMontgomery Place, a house and a 434-acre estate held by one family for generations, is now owned by Historic Hudson Valley, a nonprofit group.

By STEPHANIE STROM

Published: November 16, 2009ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - In the mid-1980s J. Dennis Delafield and his cousins faced a hard fact: They could no longer afford to maintain the estate established in 1802 by their distant ancestor, Janet Livingston Montgomery, widow of Gen. Richard Montgomery, a hero of the Revolutionary War.

A view of the Hudson and the Catskills from Montgomery Place, an estate established by Janet Livingston Montgomery in 1802.

"It was eating us up alive," Mr. Delafield said of Montgomery Place, a majestic house overlooking the Hudson River that is but one small part of the 434-acre property here. "We had to let it go, though it broke our hearts."

They decided to turn the house and its grounds, with working orchards and more than a dozen outbuildings, into a museum. So they sold it to what is now Historic Hudson Valley, a nonprofit group founded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. that owns Washington Irving's house, Sunnyside, in Tarrytown, N.Y., and several other properties.

"We made a bargain sale in the belief that that way the house would be protected," Mr. Delafield said.

Now, though, Mr. Delafield and others are worried about the fate of Montgomery Place. The house was closed to the public in 2006 - though the grounds were available for weddings, photo shoots and other events - until August, when it was hastily reopened for four hours on Fridays after a state official began inquiring about its status. Under the terms of a state financing package, the house must be open at least 12 days a year.

Rumors have run rampant this fall that Historic Hudson Valley plans to sell the house, vexing public officials who have sought definitive information from the group's leader, Waddell W. Stillman. "I've dealt with him on a number of occasions, and I've never felt we always got the full story," said Marcus J. Molinaro, the New York state assemblyman who represents the area.

In a recent interview at Montgomery Place, Mr. Stillman denied that the organization's board planned to sell all or any part of the property. "We have not discussed a sale," he said.

However, minutes of board meetings obtained by The New York Times make it clear that the board discussed just that on several occasions. "Mr. Herbert E. Nass asked whether we could sell Montgomery Place in parts, and whether doing so could yield a better price over time," the minutes of a March 10 meeting state.

At the same meeting the board chairman, Michael Hegarty, raised concerns about rebuilding the organization's endowment, which like many others was hard hit by the economic downturn. "To do this, Mr. Hegarty believes we must consider the sale of assets, such as the president's house adjacent to the Philipsburg Manor" - another of the organization's historic houses - "and some or perhaps all of the property at Montgomery Place," the minutes say.

The board even formed a committee to explore "existing conditions and constraints" at Montgomery Place; at a June meeting its members described several potential buyers, according to notes by board members.

Asked about the discrepancy, Mr. Stillman said the minutes represented "old news." "The board's March meeting coincided exactly with the nadir in the financial markets," he wrote in an e-mail message. "Everyone was distressed about the decline in our endowment, and economic prospects were grim. A wide-ranging discussion ensued about the sale of assets, including Montgomery Place, and nothing was decided or acted upon, then or since."

"The topic is no longer on the board's agenda," he wrote.

A draft resolution to offer to sell some of the land to a state agency that holds an easement on part of the estate had been floated for consideration at a meeting on Wednesday.

Mr. Stillman said the resolution had not been considered by or proposed to the board and would not be taken up on Wednesday. He also said the reopening of the house on Fridays was unrelated to the state official's inquiries.

Mr. Stillman, who joined Historic Hudson Valley in 1992, said his group could not afford the $500,000 in annual operating costs for Montgomery Place, let alone pay for necessary renovations. Nor would it be possible to reopen the house next year, as originally planned, he said. Indeed, he said, the decision to buy the house in the first place had been a bad one. "We broke some of the textbook rules for not getting ahead of yourself," he said. "We didn't have the money to buy it, we didn't have the money to maintain it, and we way underestimated how much it would take to restore it."

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But several former board members, led by the Wall Street financier Richard Jenrette, said they had proposed ways to support Montgomery Place, including offers to help Historic Hudson Valley cover some costs.

Because of its continuous ownership by descendants of Mrs. Montgomery, Montgomery Place is a rare example of an intact Hudson Valley estate. Alexander Jackson Davis, the influential 19th-century architect who designed many of the area's prominent houses, redesigned Montgomery and designed several other structures on the property. The landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing provided advice on the design of the grounds and designed one garden himself.

The house plays an important role in the community, too, Mr. Molinaro said, attracting tourists and helping to educate students in the area's history.

Mr. Jenrette has proposed that Historic Hudson Valley donate the property to the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, a foundation to which he has donated six historic houses. He and others have offered to create a friends group to raise money to support Montgomery Place. Most recently, he and John S. Dyson, another former board member and a venture capitalist, offered to put up $100,000 a year for five years to keep it open. "We think we can get at least another $100,000 to match that, and if we could create a friends group, we could raise a lot more money," Mr. Jenrette said.

In a meeting earlier this month, however, Mr. Stillman and Mr. Hegarty rejected that offer. Mr. Stillman said in the interview that he did not want to create another nonprofit group that would do the same thing as Historic Hudson Valley.

In addition to owning three other historic houses and a church in the region, Historic Hudson Valley recently broke ground on a regional history center in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., on nine acres donated by Laurance Rockefeller.

The center will provide offices for the organization, as well as space for scholars and researchers seeking access to its extensive archives and records.

Mr. Stillman envisions creating a digital archive of the contents of Historic Hudson Valley's houses to provide virtual tours and other activities to attract a new breed of tourists.

Although the group does not yet have the $15 million it needs to build the center, it began construction last month because it would otherwise lose a $6 million grant from a state financing agency.

In their meetings, according to the minutes obtained by The Times, Historic Hudson Valley board members discussed their concerns that public officials and others would assume they were using proceeds from the sale of Montgomery Place to finance the construction of the center.

"They will deny that, but money is fungible," said John H. Dobkin, a preservation expert who was the organization's executive director from 1984 to 2000. "They'll say it's to replenish the endowment, but you don't sell a unique asset like Montgomery Place to do that."

As chairman of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, Mr. Stillman put through a plan ending that organization's membership structure, selling its historic home and handing over its archives to the New York Public Library, keeping only a digitized version of them. "Historic house museums are in the same place as classical music orchestras," he said.

Historic Hudson Valley's endowment fell to $45 million last spring from about $70 million and now stands at roughly $49 million, according to Rob Schweitzer, spokesman for the organization.

By the standards of organizations supporting historic homes, that is a handsome sum even at its depleted level. The Classical American Homes trust, for example, operates six houses with $9 million in liquid assets.

"There's a pact between nonprofits and the people because we extend to them certain tax benefits and, in the case of Historic Hudson Valley, millions of dollars in public grants," Mr. Molinaro, the assemblyman, said.

"If they have a desire to divest of this asset, they certainly shouldn't benefit financially from all that public investment."

"Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life into which you have entered be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, 1825

"[T]he great Searcher of human hearts is my witness, that I have no wish, which aspires beyond the humble and happy lot of living and dying a private citizen on my own farm." --George Washington, letter to Charles Pettit, 1788

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." -

Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1802)

The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first. Jefferson

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. Jefferson

"Wish not so much to live long as to live well." --Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1746==================="It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage, and such only, as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent both in order of time and degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe." --James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785---------------

WASHINGTON – Finally, Gen. Casimir Pulaski became an American citizen on Friday, 230 years after the Polish nobleman died fighting for the as yet-unborn United States.

President Barack Obama signed a joint resolution of the Senate and the House that made Pulaski an honorary citizen.

Pulaski's contribution to the American colonies' effort to leave the British Empire began with a flourish. He wrote a letter to Gen. George Washington, the Revolution's leader, with the declaration: "I came here, where freedom is being defended, to serve it, and to live or die for it."

Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Polish-American, had been pushing for the honorary citizenship since 2005. He lives in Cleveland, which has many other citizens of Polish extraction.

"Pulaski made the ultimate sacrifice for this country, and he deserves nothing but the highest honor and recognition for his service," Kucinich said then.

Washington had heard of the young Pole from Benjamin Franklin, an urbane traveler who had been Washington's first ambassador to France. Franklin told Washington of Pulaski's exploits that had made him "renowned throughout Europe for the courage and bravery he displayed in defense of his country's freedom."

The revolutionaries' top general let the young nobleman hire onto the brash fight against the European superpower, and Pulaski made a name for himself as a skilled horseman, eventually to be known as the "father of the American cavalry."

He died before the British were driven away. In October 1779, he led a cavalry assault to save the important Southern port of Savannah, Ga., was wounded and taken aboard the American ship USS Wasp. He died at sea two days later.

Americans have honored Pulaski throughout the last two centuries. Counties and streets are named for him.

In 1929 Congress declared Oct. 11 to be Pulaski Day in the United States, a largely forgotten holiday in much of the country. The Continental Congress suggested that a monument be erected in honor of Pulaski, and in 1825 it finally was erected in Savannah.

"[R]eligion, or the duty which we owe to our creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and this is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other." --Virginia Bill of Rights, Article 16, 1776

"No country upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain these blessings than United America. Wondrously strange, then, and much to be regretted indeed would it be, were we to neglect the means and to depart from the road which Providence has pointed us to so plainly; I cannot believe it will ever come to pass." --George Washington, letter to Benjamin Lincoln, 1788

"I hope, some day or another, we shall become a storehouse and granary for the world." --George Washington, letter to Marquis de Lafayette, 1788

"We are either a United people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all maters of general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it." --George Washington, letter to James Madison, 1785

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence." --John Adams

"Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty ought to have it ever before his eyes that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it." --James Madison, Federalist No. 41

"We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others." --Thomas Jefferson, Second Inaugural Address, 1805

"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence." --Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

"Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, in favor of private rights and public happiness." --James Madison, Federalist No. 14

"The steady character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor; and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to disseminate early discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate and steady conduct, will at length rally to a proper system the great body of our country. Unequivocal in principle, reasonable in manner, we shall be able I hope to do a great deal of good to the cause of freedom & harmony." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Elbridge Gerry, 1801

"Is it not the glory of the people of America, that whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience? To this manly spirit, posterity will be indebted for the possession, and the world for the example of the numerous innovations displayed on the American theatre, in favor of private rights and public happiness." --James Madison, Federalist No. 14

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States." --Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, 1787